It's my life, not yours
by Hella530
Summary: A series of one shots. Short vignettes about Dean, Cas, and their daughter Mary-Jo.
1. Bullies are no match for MaryJo!

Author's Note: I do not want to insult anyone nor offend anyone. I cannot entirely control what comes out of that child's mouth.

Also I do not own Dean or Castiel, but I do own Mary-Jo, but she does not listen to me all that well, just her two dads. Oh and Uncle Sam.

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><p>Dean's standing just outside the hallway of his daughter's daycare when he hears them.<p>

"It's not right you know." A little girl's voice carries into the hallway, snotty and holier-then-thou sounding. Instinctively he knows they're talking to _his_ daughter about her _two_ dads. When him and Cas had dropped her off the first day the scandalized faces of a few of the parents made him want to turn his brown haired blue eyed little girl right around to find a new daycare. But Cas had put a hand on his shoulder and with his stern look he knew he couldn't. This had been the best daycare around, and because of the former hunter who was now the owner he knew it was safe. They had even had the older children practicing drawing protective sigils, but still he wanted to avoid this.

"Yeah, it says in the bible being gay's a sin." Another one said as Dean came around the doorway he saw his daughter standing up slowly, looking very calm. She brushed her skirt off and eyed the two little girls in front of her.

"Well," She said in that tone of voice he heard Cas use so often when he was correcting someone. "Jesus said 'love thy neighbor as thyself' and he said 'Judge not lest ye be judged.'" Then she leaned forward slightly, glaring at them. "And I think it's better to follow Jesus then someone who got lost in the desert time and time again and had a temper problem, don't you think?" She said before straightening and turning her back of the chastised girls as she picked up her little matchbox impala. She turned back to them and crossed her arms and glared hard at them. "Besides, it's my life not yours, so phhhbbbtt." Dean fought hard not to laugh at his little girl who up until now had taken after her stoic 'mother' but who now had just blown a raspberry at the two shocked little girls and was now strutting up to him, her chin up and her chest stuck out. She stopped in front of him and grinned widely at her father.

"Hey Mary-Jo." He said with a chuckle as he wiped at his eyes.

"Hi Dad, can we go to McDonalds?" She asked with a pleading smile. Dean nodded as he escorted her out of the play area, having already grabbed her bag. "Oh and Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell Daddy about that last part, I have an image to uphold." She said with a very serious face as she pulled on her hat with the duck on it. Dean laughed all the way to McDonalds.

He had obviously forgotten she was a Winchester, and that she was going to be just fine.


	2. A dark unnoticed slippy thing

She slipped through the darkness quietly. She knew her quarry was close, and she knew it was unprotected. But it wouldn't have mattered if it was. Her confidence in her abilities was so great it wouldn't have mattered if Dean, his partner Castiel, and his brother Sam were all around she would reach her prey none the less. She licked her lips. She was so close she could almost taste the sweet flesh of her target. She couldn't wait to sink her teeth into the soft flesh. To feel the juices drip down her chin as she devoured it. She was very hungry tonight, and nothing would keep her from it.

And there it was, nestled so quietly and safely in the dark room. She stepped lightly over the protective salt line and grinned, this was so easy. She approached it and grinned as she soundlessly picked it up and sunk her teeth into it. Soft sounds coming from it as she chewed and bit.

Suddenly the lights came on, she whirled around and wiped at her moist mouth and chin. She grinned at Dean Winchester, who's eyes were narrowed. But not out of anger, but because of the blinding kitchen light. He blinked blearily at the little girl who was standing next to the counter holding a half eaten peach.

"Mary-Jo? Why are you up?" She shrugged as she swallowed the soft peach flesh in her mouth.

"I was hungry Dad, is Daddy home yet? Or is he still at work?" She said, trying to change the subject. Dean smiled. She called him Dad, and called Cas Daddy, although technically Cas was her Mommy. She was so like them both, although right now she was taking a page from her Uncle Sam's book and was using her big 'innocent puppy eyes' on him. Hoping he would let go of the fact that she was breaking two rules, no eating past nine pm unless you ask permission, and no sneaking out of bed. He sighed, he was so not the disciplinarian that Cas was.

"No your Daddy's not home yet. And don't think you'll change the subject so fast you know you broke a couple of rules." He said, crossing his arms. Mary-Jo looked at her shuffling feet.

"I know Dad."

"Well, why did you break them? If you were hungry you yell for me, you know that's how it works." He said, trying not to be soft on her. She sighed and looked around before muttering something. "What was that?" She heaved a bigger sigh.

"I didn't want to be a bother. Jimmy Kent said if you bother your parents too much you're being a bother and they get real mad at you so I din't want to be one." She said scuffing her foot on the floor. The whole time holding onto her peach and fidgeting like the little kid she was. Dean smiled sadly at her. He knew the little boy she was talking about, the same little boy who told her that you're supposed to eat the orange rinds. That kid lied almost as much as Dean did to the cops. He ran a hand through his still short hair and crouched in front of his fidgeting nervous looking child.

"Mary-Jo, look at me," She locked her big blue sad puppy dog eyes on him, her lips pressed together. "you will never be a bother to me, and I promise not to get mad at you unless you do something really really bad, okay?" She nodded quickly, a grin breaking out on her face.

"Okay, Dad, I promise to follow the rules."

"And promise not to trust Jimmy Kent again." Dean said, standing up, smirking down at her.

"And promise not to trust Jimmy Kent again." She repeated, her smile going lopsided as she giggled. Dean nodded and pulled a chair out from the dining room table and waved at it.

"Milady." He said with a funny fake accent. Mary-Jo giggled and jumped into the chair. Dean sat down opposite of her after grabbing the cookie jar from the counter beside the fruit basket. "You know, you are one of the few kids I know who would sneak out of bed to sneak fruit when there are perfectly good cookies right next to them." He said as he pulled out a couple of chocolate chip cookies from the jar. She shrugged as she took a bite from her peach, when Dean thought about it he realized he knew a lot a kids now, granted they were friends with his daughter but still...

"Will Cousin John be coming over tomorrow?" She said, hope in her voice and in those big blues of hers. Dean smiled to himself, his brothers son, who looked so much like him but was so little like him in attitude was MJ's best friend.

"Probably, but you have to go to sleep soon if you want to keep up with JB." _John Bartholomew, that kid's gonna have such a hard time with that. _Dean thought, Sam really shouldn't have trusted JB's Mom to pick the name, that woman was so weird and nutty. He blinked and looked back down at his yawning little girl. When she blinked sleepily like that she reminded him of Sam when he was little. Then she flashed that warm happy sleepy smile at him and he felt his heart melt all over again. This kid had him wrapped around her little finger, and she was turning him into such a sap.

"Love you Dad." She said warmly, then Dean didn't care much anymore if he was a sap, he fathered this sweet little girl, so it was kind of allowed.

"Love you too short stack." He said, his nickname for his little pancake-loving girl coming out easily, before leaning down and kissing her on the forehead.

"Why are you two up?" Cas asked after he noiselessly appeared beside the table.

"Daddy!" MJ cried out before flinging her arms around his knees and hugging him. Cas leaned down a little and placed one hand on her upper back and the other on her head, this was as much off a hug her could give without falling over. He smiled warmly down at her, his devotion for her written plain on his face.

"Hello, my Mary Jo." He said. He looked up at Dean and gave him a similar, yet significantly different look of devotion. "Hello, Dean." Dean smiled and stood up and leaned forward to kiss Cas on the lips.

"Hey Cas. We were just having a late night snack." He said with a shrug as he and MJ sat back down and continued their snack. Cas looked at said snacks.

"And of course your five-year-old daughter chose the healthier snack." He said with a wry smile. Dean shrugged as MJ tried to smother her giggle with the peach.

"Would you be surprised if she didn't?" He responded with a smile. Cas tilted his head to the side and squinted.

"Yes actually I would be." He conceded with a shrug.

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><p>Author's note: The character JB may or may not show up in the next one. and the mystery of his mother will continue to remain one for now, but it's probably not who you think it is. I'd love to hear guesses.<br>A llama goes to whoever can guess where I got the title from.


	3. No bouncy house required

It was Mary-Jo's fifth birthday and Dean was freaking out and he felt like a terrible father.

He looked around the sparsely decorated two bedroom appartment that he and Cas were renting, well he was renting it. Cas technically didn't exist. But that wasn't the issue, from Dean's viewpoint Mary-Jo's party was going to suck. They had cake, ice cream, a barbecue on the tiny cement patio, and a piñata. And only her four-year-old cousin was able to come over. Well technically he and his parents were already here, and in fact his mother was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the cake while humming 'smoke on the water', but still... He remembered Ben's birthday party with the bouncy house and the whole flock of kids. In comparison his daughter's birthday party was very small, and a little lame. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed before walking into the kitchen. He looked at the redhead icing the cake, a look of fierce concentration on her face. He leaned against the doorway. They had been so surprised when she showed up, very much not dead, that they hadn't even thought to mention that she was a girl now and not a guy for a good three hours.

"Your daughter's name has an i in it right?" She asked as she put the tube of icing down.

"No." Dean said, starting to panic a little.

"It does have an e though right? And no hyphen?" She looked panicked too.

"God damn it Gabby what did you do?" Dean yelled as he hurried over to the cake to find his daughters name spelled perfectly and heard Gabriel, now Gabrielle, giggled behind him. He turned around and glared, although there was no real anger behind it. "You love freaking me out don't you?" He asked, trying not to smile at the archangel who had a hand over her mouth.

"Well it doesn't really get old." She said with a shrug. Then looked down at the cake, a little bit of nervousness on her face. "You think she'll like it? I decided not to do gumdrops, don't want to make them too hyper. They'll be running around all crazy and they might hurt themselves, or fall off the patio, and you live on the fifth floor too." She said, rubbing her collarbone where Lucifer had stabbed her. One side of Dean's mouth tilted up as he looked at her.

"Look at you being the responsible parent." He teased. Gabby looked affronted.

"I am not, I just don't... I'm totally in parent mode huh?" She asked Dean, he nodded, smiling at her.

"That's not a bad thing though." She just shrugged as she looked at the cake. She had changed a lot the past four years, partly because of the whole 'coming back to life and needing to find a new vessel' and the whole 'having a kid' really changed her too. The change wasn't too bad, she just was responsible some of the time. She still pulled tricks though.

"Mommy!" She heard her son yell from behind as he came running out of his cousin's bedroom. He had his Daddy's hair and his mother's (new) green eyes, he slammed into the backs of her legs and wrapped his arms around her knees and grinned up at her.

"Cake time yet?" He asked, his eyes big and pleading. He had obviously gotten his mother's sweet tooth.

"Not yet honey bunch, soon though. Where's your Daddy? Find him." She said. He nodded vigorously and ran off. She looked back at Dean who was smirking at her. "What?"

"Your husband's on the patio." Was all he said, a smirk still on his face as he watched her eyes go wide before she cursed and ran after her son. She was so overly worried about her son getting hurt, which was unneeded since he already displayed the ability to heal himself. She was such a Mom.

"Oh my goodness Dad!" He heard his daughter yell from the living room. He raced into the room to find her staring in awe at the decorations.

"Don't scare me like that MJ." He said, holding a hand over his racing heart. He took a deep breath and looked around the room. "So... do you like it?" He said, trying to hide how nervous he was about her answer. She turned and grinned at him before reaching for a hug which he leaned down and gave her.

"This birthday is going to be awesome." She said happily.

"And we're gonna have burgers too." He added, she squealed.

"Even better!" Oh yeah, she was definitely his kid. She just needed her family for an awesome birthday, no bouncy house required.

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><p>Author's notes: Thanks to everyone for commenting, it's let's us authors know someone's reading and enjoying our stories.<p>

And the identity of JB's mother is revealed.


	4. The Nightmare man

Dean and Cas were washing dishes when the nightmare hit. Well Cas was washing dishes, Dean was standing behind Cas, his arms around his waist, trying to distract him when they heard the whimpers over the baby monitor they still used. At first they ignored it, assuming she would calm down but when it escalated into short screams and sobs they ran for her room.

When they got to the room Cas knelt beside her and picked her stiff body up, the sobs and incoherent shouts still falling from her mouth. He placed a hand on her forehead and after a flash of light from his palm she woke up with a gasp before her face crumpled and she clung to Castiel as she started crying.

"What happened Mary-Jo? What were you dreaming about?" He asked as he brushed the hair sticking to her tear soaked face. He wiped the tears off her freckled cheeks as she sniffled and shook her head.

"I don't remember." She muttered, not looking at either of them. She couldn't tell them, she couldn't tell them that a black eyed man had been in her dreams, telling her that she would be his soon enough, that with her help he would kill her parents. That she was special, chosen. How could she? What would they say? And what would they say when they found out this wasn't the first time he had visited her dreams. The being she called the Nightmare Man.

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><p>Author's Notes: This one is a two parter<p> 


	5. The grisly victory

They're traveling between jobs when the attack happens. Mary-Jo's barely slept for weeks because of the nightmares that come every night. They don't even realize the attack's coming before it's too late.

They were driving through a long stretch of road with nothing but fields on either side and no civilization for miles when the impala just turns off.

"Oh come on baby no! Don't do this to me now." Dean says as he rubs the dashboard. Sam, Gabrielle and John Bartholomew were all of doing a job in another town so it was just Cas in the passenger seat and Mary-Jo in the backseat trying to go to sleep. Dean let her glide to the side of the road and sighed heavily before popping the hood and getting out to try to figure out what happened to it. Cas turned back to look at his tired sleep deprived daughter in the backseat staring out the window.

"Let's go stretch our legs while your father fixes the car." He says and after she nods he opens the door and steps out of the vehicle. Mary-Jo closes the car door and stands beside the car with her Daddy, just staring at the tall swaying grass that was as tall as her. Dean pauses his inspection of the engine and looks at them. They both look so alike staring hard at the field, like it was hiding something. What he didn't realize is that it was.

"Daddy?" Mary-Jo says in a whisper, when he looks down at her he sees the frightened look on her face. "Can you feel it? Can you smell it?" She asks, Castiel nods, it smelled like burning wood mostly, but there was a small trace of sulfur. And the air felt charged like before a storm.

"Get back in the car Mary-Jo." He says as he looks around. Dean closes the hood, deciding this was much more important. Cas looks down at his daughter, who was standing ramrod straight, looking panicked. "I said get back in the car." He says again. She looks up at him, her eyes filling with tears.

"I can't." Was all she said before she began to jerkily walk towards the field. Looking like someone was controlling her legs. Cas grabbed for her arm but she broke out into a run and disappeared into the field. "Dad! Daddy!" She screamed as she moved into the field. Cas started to follow when a figure stood up in the middle of the field. He was holding MJ with a knife to her throat and a sadistic grin on his face. He was possessing what looked like a farmer in overalls with red hair in his thirty's.

"Well hello, it's so good to finally meet you two. Your daughter is so special." He said as he rubbed his cheek against her head. Dean growled as he wished he had grabbed the colt from the trunk.

"Let her go you sick freak." Dean said, shaking with rage and Cas stood stock still, his power pulsing, unseen around him. The demon's eyes turned black and he smiled at them.

"No I don't think I will, you see, I need this little girl. She's very important to our cause. She's going to do great things. Like kill you two." He said with a grin.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." A voice from behind the demon says. As it turns towards the young woman who had suddenly appeared behind him she grabs the turning shoulder and pulls him around completely, using the shock to grab at the wrist holding the knife and twisting, causing his grip on the knife and MJ to loosen. MJ drops to the ground and starts to run before tripping and twisting her ankle. She cries out and grabs the offending ankle. Meanwhile the young woman with wavy dark brown hair and an enraged look upon her face grabs the knife before it hits the ground and slams it into the mans gut before throwing it behind her in one smooth move that would have made Dean impressed if he and Cas weren't searching the field for their child. But their attention is grabbed by what the demon says next.

"Well well well, look at you, all grown up. Looks like you managed to figure out your powers." He says as he wipes at the blood flowing out of his wound.

"You're damn right I did bastard." She says, as she stood crouched a few feet in front of him. "I'm here to pay you back for tormenting me." He laughed.

"You think this will destroy me? You've got to be joking." He said as he waved at his stomach wound. She chuckled.

"No, that was just stress relief, I know it must sting like a bitch. But from here on out," She clenched her hands as they started to glow white. "I'm gonna weaken you, then pull out the big guns when you turn into a pathetic puddle of pus. So come on, let's play. This is gonna be really fun." He glared at her before turning to run after MJ. She moved beside him in the blink of an eye and grabbed his arm and flipped him over her head slamming him hard into the ground. "Oh no you don't just you and me are going to play tonight." She held onto his arm and put her foot on his ribs and waited half a second for her foot to start glowing before putting weight onto it and cracking several ribs. The demon screamed and writhed, staring up at her in surprise. "Oh and did I forget to mention while I can't do many of the things other angel s can I can get very...creative." She said with a grin. He glowered at her before latching onto her arm and slamming her onto the ground. She groaned as he knelt over her, he twisted her arm up high, making sure not to come into contact with her skin.

"You are more like us then you know child, you have great potential, but you must stop fighting us first. And I don't know how you hurt me, but you will pay for that. I can't kill you, but I can hurt you." He twisted it up higher and she cried out. "You remember right? From your dreams?" She huffed before pulling her right close and using the leverage to push up and push her off him. She rolls to the side and stands up into a low crouch. He leaps at her the same time she leaps at him and he knocks her to the ground. She puts her glowing hands over his face and he screens as his skin smokes, like she just dipped him in holy water. He backs off and feels his face which had no burns. "How the hell did you manage that bitch?" He yells. She stands up, panting, but a cocky grin on her face.

"Now that would be telling."

Meanwhile Dean reaches MJ and tries to pull her back to the car but she clings to the ground.

"Wait Dad! That's the man from my nightmares!" She cries out, staring up at him. He kneels on the ground where his daughter refuses to move from and wraps his arms around her.

"Cas, get the colt from the trunk." He says to Cas who runs to do so.

By now the positions are reversed in the fight. The demon has his back to the Winchesters and the young woman is facing him.

"You know what's ironic?" She asks the demon her rhetorical question, a grimace on her face as she rubs her bruised ribs.

"That you're trying to monologue me to death?" He asked as he slowly backed up. She made a face at him like she was laughing mockingly.

"That I can only use this power when I'm really tired, my Uncle says it's probably some kind of defense mechanism, all I know is it sucks when you want to kill a demon fast and you have no weapons and no memory for exorcisms." She said as she slowly limped forward, that last kick to the hip really hurt.

"You know I'm not going to kill you." The demon said darkly, standing it's ground. "But I'm going to make you hurt like hell." It doesn't know that standing it's ground is a particularly bad decision, as is standing so close to the Winchesters, making the young woman's blood boil with rage and protectiveness.

Suddenly she dives forward and unexpectedly grabs his feet which she yanks out from under him and then she leaps onto him, her knees pressed hard onto his stomach and both hands holding down his shoulders.

"Now this will probably really hurt, but it's supposed to." She said, her green eyes dark and angry before she pushes her hand into the middle of his stomach as he howls in pain. Dean goes wide eyed as he watches her do the same thing Cas did when he felt around for someone's soul, but soon she's pulling her hand back out, a dark, smoky wriggling thing trying to escape her grasp, but she held it tight. The possessed man lay still and dead on the ground. She held the fist that held the demon above her head and her face screwed up in concentration and her hand started to glow, the light started to spread over the smokey demon and it wriggled faster, there was a strange whistling noise as she light completely covered the demon seemed to penetrate the demon, fissures of light running through it before it finally exploded in a shower of light. The young woman dropped her hand and rolled off the body, laying flat on her back for a second while she breathed heavily. Then she tilted her head back to stare at the Winchester family all huddled together staring at her. Mj was in Dean's lap, Dean was cradling her to his chest and Cas was standing over them holding the colt, looking very much like a protective guardian angel. Dean looked like he couldn't decide whether to shoot her or shake her hand, Cas was looking at her like she was a puzzle he was on the verge of solving and MJ was looking at her with a mixture of awe, appreciation, joy, and sheer love. She rolled over away from the corpse again and got on her hands and knees and crawled towards MJ. Dean held MJ tighter and stared hard at the other girl. She knelt in front of them and sighed heavily.

"Who are you?" Mary-Jo asked. The woman smiled tiredly at her.

"You already know." She said, swaying slightly on the spot.

"Are you...me?" She asked, the older Mary-Jo nodded slowly. "Oh, okay." She responded slowly.

"Do you want to go to sleep now?" The older Mary-Jo asks. younger Mary-Jo nods slowly. Older Mary-Jo places her hand on her forehead and the younger Mary-Jo slumps forward, a smile on her face. She sighed and looked up at Dean. "Hi Dad." She said, her eyes tired, but they were still his daughters eyes so he took the hand not holding MJ, place it on top of her head and tilted it forward before kissing her forehead. After he did this she seemed to slump further and started to cry. Dean looked panicked for a minute before Cas knelt down next to their daughter and wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed into his shirt.

They sat like this for a minute before she finally pulled back and wiped her eyes before glancing back at the dead body with a small shudder, and it clicked into place for Dean.

"First time you killed someone?" At this question she seemed to shrink into herself a little as she nodded. "Well he was going to hurt her," He said, nodding to MJ before blinking as he thought more about it. "I mean you, I mean, uh..." Older Mary-Jo smiled a little.

"Talking about time travel is hard. Do what I do, don't think about it too hard and don't talk too much about it." She said with a chuckle. Then she sighed. "I have to go." Dean looked slightly panicked.

"Already? Are you sure you're alright? He beat the crap out of you. Let Cas heal you first." He said as Cas leaned forward. She leaned back with an amused look on her face.

"It doesn't work on me. Half angel power interference or something. I heal a little faster then most so it's okay. Really." She said before standing up unevenly. "Besides, if I don't leave now Dad will get worried. I mean my Dad, the other Dad, older Dad, you know what I mean." She said with a wave of her hand. "Daddy too, older you is probably wringing his hands by now and considering calling in favors." She said as she backed up slowly, limping slightly. "Well, see you soon." She said as she waved, then disappeared with a fwomp sound.

"So," Dean said as he stood up slowly, awkwardly trying to cradle his six-year-old. "our daughter can time travel in the future, that's not worrying at all." He said with an eye roll. Cas looked serious as he stared at where there older daughter just stood.

"I'm more worried about what he meant when he said they have plans for her." Dean sighed. It certainly didn't bode well.

"Come on, we'll put MJ in the car then bury the body. The car should start now that that demons gone. Speaking of did you see how she killed that thing? Awesome."

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><p>Author's Note: The second part where we find out what happens to the demon plaguing Mary-Jo, and foreshadowing is present.<p> 


End file.
